Identification

Title

Fast-get-faster explains wavier upper-level jet stream under climate change

Abstract

Earth’s upper-level jet streams primarily flow in the eastward direction. They often exhibit a north-south component or waviness connected to extreme weather at the surface. Recently the upper-level eastward jet stream was found to exhibit a fast-get-faster response under climate change explained by the impact of the nonlinear Clausius-Clapeyron relation on the latitudinal density contrast. Here we show the fast-get-faster mechanism also applies to the upper-level north-south jet stream wind and the longitudinal density contrast, implying increased waviness under climate change. Arctic Sea ice loss, which has been proposed as a driver of increased waviness, cannot explain the response. It leads to a fast-get-slower waviness response at all vertical levels. We demonstrate the fast-get-faster waviness signal has emerged in reanalysis data in the Southern Hemisphere but not yet in the Northern Hemisphere. The results show the fast-get-faster mechanism explains upper-level waviness changes and highlights a tug of war between upper- and mid-level waviness under climate change.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7v69pxr

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-12-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-10T19:56:32.814953

Metadata language

eng; USA